(Copyright 2006, The New York Post. All Rights Reserved)

A decade ago, one in every seven New Yorkers was on welfare. Today, the rolls are as low as they were 42 years ago - when President Johnson declared War on Poverty.

This may not sound impressive.

But it is.

The 402,000 people now on the rolls in New York City are just a third of the 1.2 million getting benefits in 1995.

Welfare had proven a disaster - attracting people out of the workforce and onto the dole.

Permanently.

But the nation eventually woke up. In 1996, President Clinton signed welfare reform that ended the notion of endless benefits; after five years, able-bodied recipients would no longer get checks.

Meanwhile, in the city, Rudy Giuliani had become mayor. He quickly cracked down on welfare frauds and toughened up requirements for recipients.

Almost overnight, the numbers tanked. On Jan. 1, 2002 - the day Mayor Bloomberg took office - the figure was 462,595.

The 1996 welfare reform was one of the most successful pieces of social legislation ever enacted on a national level.

But in New York, reformers wondered.

Had the numbers bottomed out?

Could Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat until 2001, be trusted to follow in Rudy's footsteps and keep the rolls down?

Or would self-appointed "poverty advocates" and misguided liberals persuade him to relax requirements - and allow masses to swarm for free money?

Hizzoner was clear: "We will not allow our city to recede to a culture of dependency," he said in 2002. "Everyone who can work, should work. Assistance should be temporary. And fraud will not be tolerated." And he meant it.

Mayor Mike and his team focused on the most entrenched recipients - those with special problems keeping them from jobs. They were required to address their employment problems - be they medical or psychological in nature, or the result of a lack of training or child care.

Meanwhile, the city maintained its 35-hour work-week rule for recipients, a rule tighter than the federal 20-hour standard. (Though the city does let education, job-hunting, drug treatment and other activities count for part of that time.)

The result? Not only didn't the numbers begin to climb back up; they fell further - to the 42-year low announced Wednesday.

And get this: Though the pro-poverty crowd predicted doom and gloom - folks out on the street, starving and helpless - nothing of the sort materialized.

Folks got jobs: After three months, 88 percent still had jobs; after six, 75 percent still did. And single mothers started marrying. All in all, a dramatic achievement.

Bloomberg played a big role in all this, and he deserves a lot of credit for hitting this historic mark.

Take a bow, Mike.

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